My friends and I just arrived at the airport for our trip to Amsterdam and we couldn’t be more excited. This is our first flight from Newcastle since our arrival so we overestimated how long it would take us and arrived two hours early.  In our anticipation we found a restaurant to wait at and discuss what everyone wants to do while we are there.  There has been talk of possibly renting segways and cruising around Amsterdam sight seeing which would be hilarious all in itself however the one thing we all want to do is go to the Anne Frank museum.  Our hotel is smack in the middle of the city (or so we heard) so hopefully everything will be right at our fingertips.  Either way, it’ll be amazing weekend and we have the perfect crew to make sure that happens.

"You can't buy happiness, but you can buy a plane ticket..."

Today I finished booking my plans for spring break and I couldn’t be more excited.  One of the best parts of the study abroad program in Newcastle is the one month long spring break that comes with it.  I will be visiting eight countries in four weeks.  For the first ten days of our break, our study abroad group goes on a Loyola sponsored trip to France.  There, we visit Paris, Montpellier, and Niece.  I have been to Paris once before during my sophomore year of high school, but I am still looking forward to going again, and am especially excited to see Nice which looks gorgeous.  From Niece, I fly to Belgium where I will meet a group of my cousins and two older brothers for a mini “cousins Euro trip.” We have been planning our trip through email chains since August and they are a few of my favorite people, every time we are together we have the absolute best time so I know without a doubt it will be a great week with them.  In Belgium we will visit Brussels and Antwerp and take a train to Amsterdam from there.  From our short two and half-day visit in Amsterdam we fly to Dublin, Ireland.  I had to cut my trip a day short in Ireland so I will only be there for a day, but I know we will make the most of it.  From Dublin I will say goodbye to my family once again, and take off to Berlin, Germany to meet with the four girls from my study abroad trip I will be traveling with, Melissa, Katie, Kori, and Jess.

            From Berlin, the five of us will take trains traveling to Prague and Vienna.  After a few days visiting there, we fly to Greece and take a ferry to Santorini and there we will spend the last week of our spring break relaxing on the Greek island. Although I couldn’t be more thrilled to visit these places there are still so many places I want to see.  A month seemed like a long time to travel, but with the amount of places we wanted to see space quickly ran up.  However we still have some time after spring break so we are hoping to cross a few more places off our list before our journey ends.  It’s a little scary how quickly our time is going by here, but I love every second.

It seems that all of my travels have finally caught up to me and I finally caught “freshers flu” as the brits call it. In my opinion it just seems to be a very bad cold, but I suppose it was going to get me sooner or later. Luckily for me, this past weekend I was left in Newcastle while majority of my friends were on a Loyola sponsored trip to Wales for the weekend. So, in a positive light, it probably was the best possible weekend for me to get sick.  The past two weeks have been a little hectic. Two weekends ago, a good portion of us Loyola kids spent the weekend in London.  It was my third time in London so I wasn’t as excited as I will be for some other trips I will be taking.  However, to my pleasant surprise it was by far my best trip to London and I think it will also be one of the most memorable.  We stayed in an amazing hostel called “Wombats” which was so inviting and perfect for a group of overly excited 20 somethings. We did all of the touristy things but it was also relaxing and enjoyable, nothing to crazy or hectic to take the fun out of it.  It was a great weekend and although it was a short time spent there we made perfect use of every second there.

            Last weekend I visited Wales with half of the Loyola crew.  It was very cool to see as well, however with a 6-7 hour long bus ride there and back, majority of the weekend was spent traveling to and from.  It wasn’t all too much different from Newcastle, cute streets, pubs restaurants and small shops.  However the highlight was Cardiff Castle, which was right in the center of the city.  It was a beautiful old castle and lucky for us the sun came out for a short 30 minutes to capture some great shots.  It was a good time overall, but after sitting on the bus Sunday on the way back to Newcastle, I was very happy to be returning.  As much as I love all of the traveling we have done, and will continue to do, it definitely gets exhausting quickly, and being in a familiar place brings a whole different kind of comfort.

            However the traveling is picking right back up this weekend as 8 of us head to Amsterdam for a weekend trip.  This will be the smallest group trip to date and we are all very excited.  It will be our first trip here outside of England and I think these trips are the trips most of us are looking forward to.  Sometimes it’s unbelievable to think that our lives are casual weekend trips to cities all across Europe.  I can’t help but smile when I think of how unreal our lives are sometimes.  As corny as I may sound, who has this life?  We are beyond blessed, and fortunate doesn’t even begin to cut it.  I am just so happy to be here.

            This past week has been the first week since I have been here that I have felt myself come out of the honeymoon phase a bit.  However, I still wake up in the morning thinking… “I live in England,” and it never fails to put things into perspective.  That’s the great thing about study abroad though, it isn’t just a vacation or a trip without worries, we actually live here, and the ups and downs of reality happen to us here the way they would back in the states, and that’s the magnificent thing about it.

The beginning...

I have almost officially been in Newcastle for one month and somehow i am in shock that it has already been a month but yet feels like i have been here for ages.  So much has happened in such a short period of time it feels a bit like a whirlwind, however I could not be happier to be here.  When I arrived at the airport the Sunday of my departure the nerves definitely started to sink in.  All of the typical questions and fears started popping in my head as I gathered my bags from the car and my family walked me to the British Airways bag drop.  As I delayed reality we got one last drink together, hoping to calm my nerves, and enjoyed our last few moments together.  Saying goodbye to my family has never been easy for me but I like to think of it as ill see you later, rather than a final goodbye.  Last hugs and kisses while I tried not to feed into the lump in my throat and through the security doors I went, I knew that would be the hardest part. 

Once I arrived at the gate I felt slightly at ease and could not believe this moment which had seemed so far in the future for a year finally arrived.  For the most part I knew what to expect so I knew I had an advantage with the experience of my gap year, traveling to Australia, New Zealand, London, and Venice on my own.  I kept telling myself to keep in mind that it would be a process of discomfort and waves of different emotions but that it would all pass and become a normalcy to me as other big changes in my life have.  However, different than my two gap year programs I didn’t expect to become so comfortable so quickly and to make such fast friends. 

The flight to London and then to Newcastle went by fairly fast.  With little sleep and a fair share of anxiety I arrived to my new home in Newcastle, Windsor Terrace.  After just a few minutes to drop our stuff off we were off into town to grab some necessities and arrange our cell phone plans.  Once everyone grabbed what they needed we arrived at a tapas restaurant for an early dinner.  Everyone seemed a little on edge and shaky with the mixture of sleep deprivation and the reality that this city was really our new home and study abroad was finally here.  We all enjoyed our dinner and hurried home to catch up on sleep, unpack, and settle in.

Since the first day, it has all seemed like a blur.  Although I can’t believe we are already on our fourth week of living in Newcastle, it also feels like I have been here for months.  I told myself at the beginning to give it time, and that everything takes getting used to.  However it has surprised me how little time it took to get used to.  The friends I have made here have become great friends in little time.  I am lucky to have a group of open-minded and outgoing peers because the group you study abroad with can make all of the difference. The first day of classes seemed to shake everyone up a bit again, however like everything else it just took some getting used to and time to become routine.  Now that we are almost finished with our third week of classes already, everyone is settled and the routine has begun. 

All in all this city and this university has given me everything that I initially wanted when looking into colleges.  Everything is walkable which I absolutely love.  It is so nice to be able to get around by foot and really be involved in the city.  Newcastle University is also a much bigger school than Loyola which I had also initially wanted in a college.  Newcastle University has 30,000 students compared to Loyola's almost 5,000 students.  I knew that chances were I would love it here and that this experience was one not everyone was fortunate enough to have.  However it wasn’t until I arrived in Newcastle and really began my study abroad experience that I realized just how appreciative I was for this experience and how this place fulfills everything I ever wanted in my college experience.  I am so grateful that everything worked out the way it did and that out of all the study abroad programs I chose this one.

Although the past 2 and a half years have been amazing at Loyola through all of the ups and downs, now that I am here I cannot imagine my college experience without this semester abroad.  It was everything that I needed and it could not have come at a better time in my life.  This is everything I have wanted since my gap year ended.  I couldn't be happier with the decision of coming here and based off of the short amount of time I have already been here I know that the next few months are going to be some of the best months of my life, and I can't wait to see what it has in store.